Earth Sciences History Group (A Specialist Group of the Geological Society of Australia Inc.) Email Bulletin No. 53 23 August 2017 INHIGEO News The 42nd Annual Symposium of the International Commission on the History of the Geological Sciences (INHIGEO) to be held in Yerevan (Armenia) - 12-18 September 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of INHIGEO. This anniversary will be marked by the launch of a special volume, edited mainly by Wolf Mayer and Salome Teresa Mota and Renee M. Clary. The title of the volume is “History of Geoscience: Celebrating 50 years of INHIGEO” is published by the Geological Society of London. INHIGEO SYMPOSIA 2018-2021 INHIGEO Annual Conferences for this period are scheduled as follows. 2018 – 43rd INHIGEO Symposium, 12-22 November, Mexico City 2019 – 44th INHIGEO Symposium Como/Varese, Italy 2020 – 45th INHIGEO Symposium New Delhi, India (in association with the 36th International Geological Congress) . It will be held early in the year as the Congress is scheduled for 2-8 March 2020. 2021 – 46th INHIGEO Symposium, Poland Congratulations to Barry Cooper, being appointed as President of the INHIGEO Board for 2016-2020. His position, along with other Board members was considered by the IUGS Executive and ratified by the INHIGEO Business Meeting held in conjunction with the 35th International Geological. In addition, in the INHIGEO Membership Ballot in 2017, Bill Birch (Australia) was elected as a member of INHIGEO. History of Earth Sciences Society Members might consider joining, the History of Earth Sciences Society (HESS). To learn more about HESS please visit their website at http://historyearthscience.org. Membership includes two issues per year of the journal Earth Sciences History. It is an ISI/Web of Science listed international journal and is the only one in the world devoted exclusively to history of the earth sciences. HESS is affiliated with the International Commission on the History of the Geological Sciences (INHIGEO). Online subscriptions provide access to the full run of the journal dating back to Volume 1 in 1982. Surplus Newsletters The former Perth-based committee of the ESHG found that it needed to print around 120 copies of our Newsletters to meet the requirements of Member and libraries with a few to spare for people who had provided material in the way of photographs or assistance. However, the editors found that it cost very little more to order 150 copies, so they did this in the hope of being able to sell some to raise funds for the Group. The result is that there were quite a few surplus copies stacked in John Blockley’s study. As further sales were considered unlikely, with Sue Fletcher’s agreement, the copies have been placed in the GSWA library to be made available as "freebies" to publicise the Group. ESHG Web Pages Due to the upgrade and overall redesign of the GSA web pages, Divisional and Specialist Group web pages have been incorporated into the main web pages, and as a result the web address has changed for the ESHG Division web pages. After some initial angst from some ESHG members, when it was discovered that the old address no 1 longer worked, the content from the old pages, including links to recent Newsletters and eNews, has now been rebuilt and redesigned through the efforts of Tim Holland, the Membership Development Officer at GSA Head Office. The web pages can be accessed through the main GSA web page at https://www.gsa.org.au/ by going to the Specialist Groups tab and then selecting ESHG. They now have a similar look-and-feel to the rest of the GSA web pages. Tim was able to compress the rather large Newsletter pdf files without the loss of significant resolution, so that they would fit within the size restrictions imposed by the GSA’s web host. He took particular care to retain the page banners that were a feature of the old pages, and has converted the biographies to html, so that they are easier to read on screen. Biographies of many influential Australian geoscientists are yet to be included on the page, and a list of possible candidates is given below. Of course, there are many other worthy subjects, and members are welcome to submit biographies of these or any others to the Secretary of the Earth Science History Group John Jell - [email protected] Edward de Courcy Clarke Irene Crespin Richard Daintree Samuel Benson Dickinson Norman Henry (Doc) Fisher Charles Gould John Walter Gregory Dorothy Hill Edwin Sherbon Hills Terence D Hills Joseph Beete Jukes Clive Loftus-Hills Nelly Ludbrook Lyndon Charles Noakes Reginald Claude Sprigg William Harper Twelvetrees George Henry Frederick Ulrich Mary Wade Leonard Keith Ward Samuel Warren Carey Dorothy Hill Online Exhibition The University of Queensland is launching an online exhibition called Flirting with Fossils - Dorothy Hill: Australia's first female professor about the life and legacy of Dorothy Hill in September. The official launch will be Tuesday 5 September, with drinks from 5:00 and the launch at 6:00 pm, in room 03-206 Steele Bldg on the UQ campus. The online exhibition will be ongoing. As the first female Professor at an Australian university and the first Australian woman to become President of the Australian Academy of Science, Dorothy Hill paved the way for women to reach positions of prominence in science. As a teacher, Dorothy Hill mentored a generation of students at the University to pursue the earth sciences. As a researcher, Hill received a number of international and Australian honours for her research into Australian fossil corals. Inspired by her experience at the University of Cambridge, Hill was also a passionate advocate for the University of Queensland library. Following the launch of the exhibition, a panel of speakers featuring Honorary Professor John Jell, Professor Gregory Webb, Professor Joan Esterle and PhD student, Sarah Kachovich, will reflect on Hill's work in Australian geology and palaeontology, and her influence as a mentor and academic pioneer for women. The discussion will be led by Professor Sue Golding. The event is free, but attendees must register by 1 September at https://register.eventarc.com/39135/flirting-with- fossils-dorothy-hill-australias-first-female-professor 2 AJM ... more than just minerals! The latest issue of the Australian Journal of Mineralogy (AJM, Vol. 18, No. 1) has several articles that cover historical aspects of minerals and mine discoveries: The first featured article by Bob Noble recounts part of the early prospecting history of the Kalgoorlie gold rush and the discovery of the fabulous Golden Mile deposit by Sam Pearce from the Adelaide Prospecting Syndicate. The Golden Mile is the world’s largest and richest known Archean gold lode system and contains the world’s largest endowment and diversity of telluride minerals. A history of the Northampton mineral field that is situated near the coast approximately 450 km north of Perth. The discovery of galena there in October 1848 sparked WA’s first mining boom, and the mines of the region produced some excellent specimens of galena, pyromorphite and cerussite. Ben Grguric and John Toma write about the mineralogy of the Almanda mine, a short-lived but relatively rich 19th century silver mine in the Adelaide Hills. AJM is a joint publication of the State Mineralogical Societies in Australia, and is now under new management in WA. It aims to publish one to two issues per year. Contributions on all aspects of mineralogy, including historical perspectives (e.g. on collections or collectors of historical significance) are welcome. If you think you have something to contribute, please contact the Editor at [email protected]. To subscribe or order your copy, please email [email protected] Contributions for the ESHG Newsletter Papers presented during the session on Australian geologists in World War 1 at the AESC in 2016 have been received, but delays in receiving them and personal commitments by the editor have delayed publication. Therefore, articles on other topics are still welcome and if you have an article for the newsletter, you are welcome submit it to the Newsletter Editor, Mr John Draper at [email protected] by the end of October. Upcoming Conference Australasian Mining History Association 23rd Annual Conference Web: http://www.mininghistory.asn.au Federation University, East Gippsland Traralgon 23rd-29th September 2017 Obituary: Phillip Elliott Playford: a life of geology, exploration and history Phillip (Phil) Elliott Playford was born on 27 December 1931 in Guildford, the elder son of Elliott Geoffrey and Alice Mary Playford. He attended the Forrest Street State School (now South Perth Primary School) (1937–1942) and completed his schooling at Perth Modern School (PMS) (1943–1948). He later wrote that he ‘didn’t like the school [PMS]’ and that his ‘salvation came through tennis, in which I eventually became school champion and captain of the winning team in the inter-school competition’. He won a General Exhibition in the Leaving Certificate exam and went on to study geology at the University of Western Australia (1948–1953). His honours project was mapping the Jurassic geology of the Geraldton district. Travelling to and from the field area on his motorbike (a Triumph 3T) he collected a large number of ammonites from the Newmarracarra Limestone which he sent to W J Arkell at Oxford University, who was the world-renowned expert on Jurassic rocks. This led to his first major publication (with Arkell, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London) that established the Bajocian age for this unit. After graduating, Phil joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) in 1953, working in Alan Condon’s team with two other stalwarts of WA geology, Murray Johnstone and Daryl Johnstone, mapping the southern Carnarvon Basin.